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A concert in the garden to benefit nonprofits

Carute Romana performs during the Community Concerts in the Secret Garden at the Rochester on Aug. 17 to a full crowd. The concert, which is organized in part by the Community Foundation Serving Southwest Colorado, featured nonprofit Project Merry Christmas.

A lot of what the Community Foundation Serving Southwest Colorado does is in the background, helping area nonprofits and donors with philanthropy.

Tim Walsworth calls the foundation the savings account for area nonprofits, and new board member Kathleen Adams said she regards it as the guardian of nonprofits’ money, but whichever definition you prefer, it’s a key player in supporting the financial stability of the nonprofit sector. In 2015, it infused almost $1 million into Southwest Colorado’s nonprofits and scholarships.

“We view ourselves as the ultimate matchmaker,” Executive Director Briggen Wrinkle said. “We match philanthropists with nonprofits so that giving is transformed from an obligation to an inspiration. We also match would-be nonprofits with existing nonprofits in order to encourage collaboration and maximize effort and resources within the community.”

During the summer, music lovers have come to look forward to a tradition now finishing its second year, concerts in the Rochester Hotel’s Secret Garden, 726 East Second Ave., to benefit 10 local nonprofits and introduce the community to them. (The concerts are a few years older, it’s the benefiting part that is more recent, a brainchild of Kirk Komick, co-owner of the Rochester, his whole crew and Wrinkle.)

Each year, different nonprofits are chosen to receive the proceeds from the concerts – they split the proceeds from the gate at the end of the series, plus attendees are encouraged to donate additional monies if the cause touches their hearts. The designees this year are Riverhouse Children’s Center (coincidentally, the subject of my education feature elsewhere in the Herald on Wednesday), Growing Partners of Southwest Colorado, Spring Creek Horse Rescue, Women’s Resource Center, La Plata Youth Services, Durango Choral Society, La Plata County Thrive! Living Wage Coalition, Project Merry Christmas, Friends of the Durango Public Library and Four Corners Rainbow Youth Center.

From the number of emails I received from each of these organizations encouraging me to attend, I can safely say the nonprofits greatly appreciated the opportunity to share information about their organizations and raise money without having to plan a fundraiser themselves.

The last day of August is the last concert of the series, with Kirk James Blues benefiting the Rainbow Center at 5 p.m. Tickets are $10 (cash) at the gate. There is a cash bar and local food vendor. It’s the perfect way to spend a summer evening.

New this year, the foundation – which you may have noticed serves Southwest Colorado, not just La Plata County – extended the concept to Pagosa Springs. Called the 19th Hole Concert Series, because it was held at the Pagosa Springs Golf Club, it offered a six-concert series for its inaugural outing, benefiting the Chimney Rock Interpretative Association, Foundation for Archuleta County Education, Thrive, Geothermal Greenhouse Partnership, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southwest Colorado and the Veterans Memorial Park of Archuleta County.

The Community Foundation’s next big event is its seventh annual Community Taste Dinner on Sept. 8, when area restaurants and caterers serve up a feast – and that is not hyperbole – of dishes made with locally sourced ingredients, complimentary beer and wine provided by local liquor stores and microbreweries and the unbeatable views at the Ridgewood Event Center at Blue Lake Ranch. The evening is topped off with dancing to Tim Sullivan and Narrow Gauge.

Tickets are $70 per person and are available at www.swcommunityfoundation.org.

Monies raised from the dinner support another important initiative by the foundation, its ongoing work in educating nonprofit staff and board members. From 4 to 6 p.m. Sept. 14, it will kick off a three-part board training series in collaboration with Rural Philanthropy Days and Third Sector Innovations. Sessions runs from 4 to 6 p.m. (The other two sessions are Oct. 12 and Nov. 9). The cost is $60 for the series.

For more details and to register, visit www.southwestrpd.org/capacity-building-opportunities/ or send questions to admin@swcommunityfoundation.org.

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Here’s to lots of Virgo birthdays – Cliff Summers, Mary Nowotny, Cynthia Cathcart, Pat Emmett, Carol Bruno, Bruce Harris, Kristen Collins, Ted Robson, Harold Jackson, Peggy Sharp, Clyde James, Greer Bohan, Valerie Beaudette, Wardine Lee, Carol House, Connie Matthys, Dianne Donovan, Paul McGurr, Jana Goldstein, Clark Cunningham, Mary Butler, Sharon Kuhn, Nate Verow, Jackie Honold, Natasha Brown, Brian Honold, Dottie Anderson, Donovan Forsyth, Ben Meyer, Karen Boots, Jessica Widder, Colton Winn, Mark Fleming, Robin Southworth, Sue Mages, Alexa Fleming, Kobe Szura, Rap Fairley, Peter Olson, Larry Hjermstad, Lynn Partridge, Westly Moore, Robert Moore, Patricia Anderson, Elaine Honold, Art Meyer, Linda Hartlein, Naomi Magyar, Heather Lundquist, Olivia Gomez-Cruz, Penni Compton, Wendy Lasher, Mike Milner, Noni Griffith, Sam Burns, Stephanie Dial, Barbara Fiddler, Chelsey Helling, Asanga Ranasinghe, Emma Wales, David Mantor, Norma Engman, Steve Sproul, David Shipps, Jim Sutherland, Renee Knight, Cathy Duggan, Judy Ranasinghe and Lynne Murison.

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If you missed it last year, don’t miss it this year. Wolfwood Refuge, which provides a safe haven for wolves and wolf-dog hybrids, is holding its fifth annual art auction at 5 p.m. Sept. 10 at Digs, 125 Mercado St., in Three Springs. The art will be previewed from 5 to 8 p.m. Thursday at Four Leaves Winery, 528 Main Ave.

Visit www.wolfwoodrefuge.org to learn more about this great organization and the need it fulfills in our area.

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To put it in Sherlock Holmesian-style, changes are afoot for Neighbors. I will be off the first two weeks in September, so there won’t be a column for a while. When I return, I will begin posting stories as I get them online at www.durangoherald.com, with Neighbors moving to Sundays in the print edition. The first print column upon my return will run Sept. 25.

Taking Neighbors more digital will allow me to be more timely and provide more photos than I have room for in print.

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Enjoying their unusually cool, monsoonal anniversaries are Nick and Sandy Blaisdell, Todd and Jessica Sharp, Frank and Ricci Dawson, Mark Dickmann and Eve Gilmore, Duane and Judy Danielson, Kevin and Tabitha Heckman, Ken and Linda Hartlein, Greg and Beth Stelz, Richard and Linda White, Gary and Cathy Jones, Steve and Andrea Owen, David and Nancy Shipps, Jim and Jean Robinett and Albert and Angie Halverstadt.

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Here’s how to reach me: neighbors@durangoherald.com; phone 375-4584; mail items to the Herald; or drop them off at the front desk. Please include contact names and phone numbers for all items. Follow me on Twitter @Ann_Neighbors.

I am happy to consider photos for Neighbors, but they must be high-quality, high-resolution photos (at least 1 MB of memory) and include no more than three to five people. I need to know who’s who, left to right.



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